“Just don’t say anything, Zane. I did what my heart told me to do.” With that, he walked to the bathroom and shut himself up inside. A moment later, the lock clicked and Zane heard him crank the water on, listened to it patter down on the floor of the shower. Sitting there, his back against the wall, Zane recognized the tingling, crawling feeling in his stomach that of dreadful fear.
Charlie was still out there and, like it or not, someone had shot Jeremy Meyer. The fear was enough to kick him into gear. Throwing open the door, he shifted and picked up her scent. It was faint, but he followed it until it grew fresher, stronger, and he tracked it right into the woods. He had to tell her the full truth, not just the skewed version that Benji had pieced together. As he ran, he called to her mind, murmuring her name in his thoughts.
Charlie.
He knew she’d hear him, but she never responded, never answered back.
Panic rose. What if the gunman had already gotten her? What if he found her body, limp and bloodless, and he never had the chance to apologize? He reached out with mental feelers, grasping at air.
Please, Charlie…
When he did find her, she was sitting on the ground at the base of a gnarled old oak tree, her knees pulled up to her chin and her head resting atop them. She was hugging herself into a ball and his heart dropped and bottomed out at the shattered look on her face. Benji’s words from earlier traipsed into his mind:
I don’t want to see her hurt. I can’t stand the idea of picking up the pieces if you broke her heart.
And he had. He’d broken her heart. Feeling a tremble set into his bones, he slinked towards her, his head and tail low, ears drooping. She looked at him, her eyes pale and wounded like winter. For a moment they just stared at each other. Then her face seemed to crumple. “Why?”
Zane pressed his eyes closed at the sound. He took a sharp breath in, then willed his human form to resurface and, keeping his distance, he sat down across from her. He wanted to touch her, to kiss her, but that ship had sailed.
“Would you’ve ever given me the time of day if I hadn’t?”
“No…”
“I just needed a chance, Charlie. I needed you to see the real me, with real feelings and emotions and wants and needs, not just a pretty face on the cover of a High Velocity album. Not just the guy you worked for. When you talked about leaving, I knew in my gut that if you did, I’d never see you again. I was afraid that we’d never get the chance to explore what we needed to see. So I came up with a plan.”
Her laugh was soft, bitter. “Benji told me what you did.”
“He told you what he heard, but he didn’t tell you why. It’s true that I made up the stalker. I got the guys to help, even when they were reluctant. They didn’t want to. Micah planted the first bomb—he’s got experience with that sort of thing. Parker did the artwork on the trailer. We planned it carefully, so no one would actually be harmed. We just wanted to shake things up a little. When that didn’t seem serious enough to warrant a bodyguard, I decided maybe to stage a mugging. Except Parker actually got a few good hits in when I had my guard down. He said the blood would make it more realistic.” He shook his head. “And it worked. God, I know it’s stupid—it’s insane. I just wanted a chance with you, wanted you to see me in a new light.”
“I see you clearly, Alexander.”
“Then see how much this hurts.” He placed his hand over his heart, looked right at her. “I never meant to hurt you. I was getting ready to come clean, tell you everything, right before… Right before Jeremy. And in that moment, when the gun went off, I wasn’t worried about myself. I was terrified that I was going to lose you.”
“Then who killed Jeremy?”
“I don’t know. It wasn’t Micah or Parker because they’re both equally freaked out. Benji doesn’t understand that whoever took the shot is still out there; he probably believes that we did it, and I can’t say I blame him. But I’m sure that Jeremy was never the intended target.”
“You think that you were?”
“You saw it—the bullet missed me by sheer luck or poor aim, one or the other. Had I moved closer to you, I’d probably be dead right now.” The realization of it had his stomach knotting. He glanced to the side, paranoia creeping up on him. What if the killer was waiting for them out here?
He sucked in a breath and looked right at her. “It’s probably a smart move to go back to my trailer, but I don’t want to leave you out here alone. I fucked up, Char. I fucked up bad. And I know you probably won’t forgive me. But if there really is someone out to get me, I could really use your help.”
She was quiet for a moment, then, “Fine,” and his heart picked up. “But I call a cease-fire on the whole friends with benefits thing. As of now, you keep your hands to yourself and I’ll do the same. I think that it’s better this way.”
“We were never really friends before this,” Zane said with a wry, pained smile. “But I understand. I respect that, even if it kills me, but let me come clean. Maybe my plan was stupid, but I’d do it over and over again.” Her eyes narrowed, but he held up a hand to fend off anything she might say. “These last few weeks have been so real, Charlie. They’ve opened my eyes to something. I’m in love with you.”
Before she could say anything, a crack of a branch underfoot sounded in the woods behind them, making both of them jump. Nerves bounding inside of him, Zane got to his feet and offered a hand to her. Looking sad but resolute, she placed her hand inside of his and he pulled her to his feet. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from kissing her, the urge nearly strangling him.
Then he took both of her hands in his and looked into her eyes. “I mean it.” He paused, lost for words, then shook his head and released her. “Let’s go.” Knowing she’d follow, he headed back for base with a heavy heart.
Chapter Fifteen
What a mess.
Following silently behind Zane, Charlie kept her head tucked down, watching her feet and mindless of their progress out of the woods. Everything that had happened completely confused her, but she was angry. After being played for a fool and then getting the “L” bomb dropped on her head, she really wasn’t feeling too sure of herself.
As far as she had known in her time with High Velocity, Zane had never even come close to saying that he loved any of the women he’d bedded. Now here he was, after being busted in a terrible web of lies, trying to say those words to her. Talk about bad timing—and it made her feel that he could very well be horribly insincere.
Those thoughts carried her to the edge of the woods, where Zane hesitated to let her catch up the few feet between them. Glancing up, but unable to allow herself to hold eye contact with him, she shook her head.
“Will you stay with us tonight?”
If he’d said anything besides “us” she would’ve refused, but they all needed to be together and her cover as Zane’s lover could still possibly come in handy. Funny, the little hiccup of pain she felt upon realizing that, once again, she was really just using lover as a cover instead of a true status.
“Yeah, we need to talk—all of us, and Conner. He deserves to know what’s going on.”
She wanted to see his reaction, hoping to see guilt, but somehow didn’t feel the satisfaction she expected when Zane winced. Still, she was at least appeased to know he wasn’t still moving blithely through this whole fiasco.
“Sure. We’ll all bunk together and make a real plan.” A pause, a breath. “I’m scared now, Charlie, and that’s the truth.”
She gave a short not and, picking up a much faster pace than before, the duo headed towards the trailers. She wasn’t surprised to see that Conner had already stationed himself right outside the trailer door. She stepped up. “We’ve got to talk. The guys have some details you need.”
“You mean beyond what I already know?”
“Yeah.”
She didn’t miss the frown between the other wolf’s eyes or the rigid stance he took, but she didn’t feel up to commenting on it out in the open. She climbed the stairs to Zane’s trailer and let herself in. Neither Micah nor Parker dared to glance her way, ducking their heads as she entered. Benji was nowhere to be seen.
Hearing Zane and Conner enter behind her, Charlie picked the lone chair in the living room and curled up on it. She really had nothing to say. Conner would listen to the guys first, then she would simply let him know that she knew nothing else and they’d all go on their merry way.
Once the guys were sitting, although none of them looked comfortable, Charlie scanned the room and sighed. Benji was still absent. He probably wasn’t in the mood for this, but too bad, neither was she.
“Yo, Benji, get your ass out here.”
Beaten to the punch by Parker, she folded her hands calmly in her lap despite the jitter in her soul. Benji slunk in and, surrounded by the five other werewolves, Charlie took a breath and listened one last time as Zane began the story from the top.
“Son of a bitch.” Conner hadn’t spoken a single word throughout the confession and Charlie nearly jumped out of her skin when he barked out the words. She looked over to find his expression a mix of disgust and disbelief. “You’re telling me that to get some tail—sorry Charlie—you led all of security down the fucking garden path? You honestly thought that was intelligent?”
Her interest piqued, she gazed at Zane expectantly. He crossed both arms over his chest and leaned back against the sofa. “Look, man. I pay you, I don’t have to explain shit to you. The important thing is that someone’s dead—someone’s actually out to get us—which means that we’re all threatened.”
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll keep your asses safe, but you have no idea how badly I’d enjoy beating the hell out of you right now,” Conner said.
“Whatever. What’s the plan?”
“The plan? Oh, let me pull my “catch a lunatic with a gun” plan out of my ass. What the fuck are you expecting? We’ll have the detectives and the PD keep doing what they’re doing. You guys are officially going to be tailed 24/7 and you also have to promise me no more bullshit behavior.”
Zane’s lips thinned. “I could just fire you.”
“At this point in time, with the mess that you’ve made, I’d almost welcome it.”
“Ahem.” Charlie knew that without something to either distract them or separate them, the testosterone match between the two dominant wolves was going to get ugly, and fast. Five pairs of eyes swung to her, two of them heated and looking for blood, the others conveying anything from amusement to worry. Standing tall, Charlie cleared her throat. “As much as I’d enjoy watching you two try and rip the other’s throat out, it’s juvenile and a waste of time. I’m tired.”
“Amen.” The one word came from Micah and acted as a goodnight, since he stood and lumbered towards the back where the other guys were bunking. The door shut with a bang behind him.
Parker and Benji said nothing; they simply followed Micah and once they were gone, a still-posturing Conner broke away and stormed to the door. He stopped, his hand resting on the door knob. “Charlie, I’d like to talk to you in the morning. Come see me when you get up. I’ll have funeral information as well as anything that the police end up sending over. Until then, enjoy your sleep. Lucky me, I get to call up the PD and explain the stupidity that needs to be taken out of their report.” A slammed door was his goodbye, and then it was just Zane and Charlie.
Feeling unsure of what she was supposed to even say to him, Charlie sighed and opened her mouth, but Zane beat her to it. “I’ll take the couch tonight; you can have our—” A pause and a shake of his head. “My bed.”
The awkward tension between the two of them stung and Charlie straightened her shoulders. “I’m fine out here. I’ll sleep better being close to the door and besides, I’m the one who’s armed.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“Funny, because I’d sleep better being close to you.” And before Charlie could get in another word, Zane turned and strode down the hall. She held her breath until the door clapped shut, then released it.
Damn.
***
Zane woke up at dawn and was bombarded with silence—heaps of it. Parker, Micah, and Benji seemed to have formed an alliance with one another and every time he tried to talk to them, they’d give him the cold shoulder, the evil eye, or just ignore him all together. At a little past ten, he gave up trying and tidied the house while the guys played video games, a soundtrack of gunshots and zombie moans his background music.
He needed to do something. Charlie was out and about doing who-knew-what, which had him worrying about her. He had to keep talking himself down. She wasn’t his priority anymore. She had her own life to live and it was none of his business now. Still, even as he chanted it in the chaos of his mind, it burned. With the guys giving him the silent treatment, Zane needed to do something to break the cacophony of silence, because the tension was killing him.
As he scrubbed at a nasty spaghetti sauce stain on the stove, it came to him. Leaving the wet rag on top of the mess, he strode out the door and made a beeline for Conner. He found him talking in low tones with Charlie. They both glanced up when the door banged shut behind him.
“Hey.” He offered Charlie a small smile, which she returned, but he could feel the distance spreading between them, acres at a time.
Conner jerked his head in a man-nod. “What do you need?”
“I actually have a favor to ask.” At Conner’s droll stare, he shook his head. “I know I don’t deserve it, but this isn’t about me. It’s about an apology to the guys.”